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McALLEN — The school board held its fourth budget workshop Monday with an update on a budget reduction plan to deal with the district’s ongoing deficit that has been reduced to $10.3 million from the initial $14 million.
Districts across the state are currently dealing with budget issues since Gov. Greg Abbott is withholding $31 billion from public school funding until his school voucher plan proposal is approved.
Giving an update on the projected 2024-2025 budget, board members heard about an update to the deficit along with a budget reduction plan.
In the meeting the board looked over the updated revenues and expenditures for 2024-2025.
The projected revenues for the district is about $243 million with expenditures being around $254 million with a deficit of a little over $10 million.
The update on the budget used new information such as voter approval tax ratification election figures and estimated student enrollment, which is projected to drop about 500 students based on a five-year average.
The district will recalculate the template for the 2024-2025 budget when it gets preliminary tax values on April 30.
In a cost saving effort, officials reassigned 20 staffers and closed 10 vacancies. Of those staffers, 14 instructional aids were reassigned as special education instructional aides.
Budget calculations did not include interest earnings or School Health and Related Services (SHARS) numbers as the district has filed a formal appeal over those calculations with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).
The district bills for medical services such as physical therapy and occupational therapy throughout the year and at the end of the fiscal year, a cost report is completed to determine the annual reimbursement for the previous year.
HHSC is reducing by 50% the total SHARS reimbursement for all districts across the state.
The district has averaged for the last five years around $1.9 million per fiscal year in billing and cost report settlement combined.
With an informal appeal filed and denied, the district filed a formal appeal and is waiting for a response from HHSC.
McAllen ISD stands to lose around $961,000 if the appeal is denied.
